écarquiller
\e.kaʁ.ki.je\
The verdict
“écarquiller” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ouvrir tout grands les yeux, en signe d’attention ou d’étonnement.
Corpus desk
Index FR-ecarquiller · écarquiller · French
écarquiller · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "É" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | écarquiller |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \e.kaʁ.ki.je\ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « écarquiller » en français
Rare enough to double-check
écarquiller is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \e.kaʁ.ki.je\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for écarquiller in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is écarquiller, spelled É-C-A-R-Q-U-I-L-L-E-R.
Definition
- 1Ouvrir tout grands les yeux, en signe d’attention ou d’étonnement.
- 2Écarter en éventail.
- 3Écarter largement.
- 4Écarteler.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how écarquiller appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Il s’excusa gracieusement de quitter le salon et sortit ayant envie de dormir autant que de s’aller noyer : le démon de la curiosité lui écarquillait les yeux, et de sa main délicate ôtait le coton que le Chevalier avait dans les oreilles.
Aussitôt Cama écarquilla ses gros yeux, fendit sa bouche jusqu’aux oreilles, se mit à rire stupidement, et, séduit par notre communauté d’opinion sur le neveu de Charlemagne, se mit entièrement à ma disposition.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.